Monday, August 24, 2015

First Day of Schoolwork for the year! We started off light, partly
because we had a rough day yesterday and partly because my kids are
still hip deep in summer mentality. We accomplished journaling, math,
english and spelling. I'm pleased for our first day back at it!

And of course I took pictures!

My babies!

Claire - 9 years old. When she grows up she either wants to be an artist or a children's librarian.

Her favorite color is pink!

Chandler - 6 years old When he grows up he wants to be a Rock Star.

His favorite color is blue!

Fiona - 2 years old When she grows up she wants to be a .... grown up.

Her favorite color is purple!

All working in their journals. Except Declan - he's waiting for breakfast!

Sunday, August 23, 2015

So I have a little list of things I need to do to prep and get together. During the summer everything gets scattered and that's not even counting the disaster the homeschool cabinet has been. I haven't even had a chance to tackle that.

Daddy has a side job that he is trying to finish so he worked part of the day.

Claire has been very unhelpful. Any request of her has meant moans and groans.

Chandler has been whiny, complaining and demanding.

Fiona has been disobedient and defiant. That two year old independence is working against me.

Declan has been crying and needy for attention.

I have a headache and just want to get some stuff done. It doesn't help that my coping mechanism to stress is disappearing in a book or a TV show. I am fighting it so hard, especially since it will just make it worse since they won't let me focus on anything and the disruption would not make my mood any better.

So instead I am going to take a deep breath, eat a piece of dark chocolate and bite my tongue.

I don't like the person I become when I am this stressed. I especially don't like the parent I become. I sent Claire and Chandler to their rooms to clean, the few minutes of semi quiet helped. I worked on some lesson planning and watched an episode of something off Hulu while nursing Declan. You know what though, I don't HAVE to start school tomorrow. That's the beauty of homeschooling.

Our day is what we make it!

Maybe we won't get all of our work done tomorrow.

Maybe we'll just go for ice cream instead!

Maybe we will all wake up refreshed and ready.

Maybe we will declare it a Not-Back-to-School Pajama Day and watch movies all day.

What I do know is that I need to take a step back and focus on myself and my children and what we all need.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

This morning we
had our last summer field trip to the local historical museum and the old
jail/rock museum. The kids loved it!

Claire and Friend

The Historical Museum is in the old General Store. It was really neat. They had a lot of old Cherokee artifacts, Settler items, old guns, Civil War pieces and lots of interesting information.

Next we headed to the Gem Museum just around the corner in walking distance. The rocks were amazing. The had crystals and geodes from all over the world. One of the kid's favorite rooms was a black light room which showed the colors the crystals and rocks glow when introduced to different lights. Very cool!

^^ This picture was in the fossil room. The tour guide is pointing out a fossilized dinosaur egg! She was awesome with the kids. She told them to keep an eye on it for her in case it hatched. They took her seriously. Haha!

Then they got to go gem mining in the sand box out front and even got to take some cool rocks home with them! It really is a great little museum - and did I mention it is donation only? Loved it!

After we got home I got everyone settled down and I listened to soothing
music and sorted books for our homeschool co-op while the kids ran around
playing and Declan played/fussed at my feet. But 6 big boxes of books are all
ready to hand out at our meeting next week! Now time for dinner and then I am
headed to yoga class. It's been a pretty good day.

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Claire has been a "struggling reader" for the last few years. She has always loved books - but looking at booksm not actually reading them. I am a voracious reader and always have been, so this has been difficult for me, but somehow this summer everything clicked. I am finding her in her bed reading by flashlight when I go to bed and she is snatching moments when she can to dive into her books. She went from barely reading a few month ago to chapter books that she is eagerly giving me a synopsis of multiple times a day. Even with her busy play and chore schedule she is reading at least 5 chapters a day. Today she told me that she she can't believe how easy it is for her to read inside her head. She still struggles at reading out loud. I think she's a little too much like me in that department. I read too fast and my mouth can't keep up and it confuses me. She tells me everything that happens in the books (trust me EVERYTHING) so I know she is getting them. It makes me so happy to see my little bookworm deep inside a book.

Monday, August 3, 2015

Happy Birthday Declan!! How has one year flown by so
quickly? Laughing, troublemaker, serious,
mama's boy - his serious, solemn personality has been changing ever
since he started crawling. Now he is into everything and laughs
hysterically when told "no". This one is going to keep us on our toes!
And like all my children he turns one and starts turning a corner for
sleep. Last night he slept in his crib from 8:30 until 5 this morning.
He nursed and fell back asleep and woke up for the day at 9am. I can
live with that! He is such a blessing to us and I am so thankful for
this handsome little boy.

This weekend we had a joint birthday dinner for Declan and my sister Annie. Their birthdays are 2 days apart and she was up from Florida where she lives so we jumped at the opportunity.

Annie's "cake"! She is allergic to flour, dairy, etc so Mom made her is gorgeous thing!

I am a pretty nerdy, slightly hippie, homeschooling mama of four minions. Busy loving and teaching my 2 girls and 2 boys with my husband of 14 years. Right now I'm holding on to my sanity and trying to help my children grow into themselves!